| AFI-Discovery Channel Silverdocs Documentary Festival | |
|---|---|
2011 Silverdocs. |
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| Location | Silver Spring, Maryland |
| Founded | 2003 |
| Awards | Ace Documentary Grant Sterling Award for Short and Feature (US and World) |
| Number of films | 108 (2008) |
| Official website | |
AFI-Discovery Channel Silverdocs Documentary Festival is an American international film festival created by the American Film Institute and Discovery Channel. It is held every year in Silver Spring, Maryland near Washington, D.C.. Started in 2003, the festival is held for eight days in June at the AFI Silver and Discovery Communications World Headquarters. Silverdocs is dedicated to showcasing the best in documentary films.
Silverdocs also offers the concurrent 5-day International Documentary Conference, the largest professional conference of its kind in the U.S. It explores the business of documentary filmmaking with 1,200 industry participants and 80 workshops, seminars and networking events. The Conference brings together business leaders, filmmakers, broadcasters, distributors and funders from both established and emerging media markets.
Silverdocs bestows awards valued at over $80,000 in cash and prizes. Awards & Grants include:
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AOL Vice Chairman Emeritus Ted Leonsis, BET Co-Founder Sheila Johnson, former Vice President Al Gore, Academy Award-winning filmmakers Martin Scorsese, Jonathan Demme, Barbara Kopple, Lebron James, and Alex Gibney.
BBC, CPB, Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, The Ford Foundation, HBO, Latino Public Broadcasting, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Miramax, National Black Programming Consortium, National Geographic, PBS, the Sundance Institute, The Weinstein Company.
Now entering its ninth year, SILVERDOCS has been hailed as the "pre-eminent US documentary festival" (Screen International) and as "non-fiction nirvana" (Variety).
The 2008 Festival presented 108 films selected from 1,702 entries, included 27 significant premieres and welcomed over 21,000 attendees. All six 2009 Academy Award-nominated documentary films screened at Silverdocs 2008. Of these, The Garden and Smile Pinki were Silverdocs World Premieres.
The 2009 festival ran from June 15-22.
The 2010 festival will run June 21-27